How the Senate Lost Its Decorum

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley was 13 words into his introductory remarks when he was interrupted by Harris. She wasn’t being rude. Well, let’s rephrase that: It wasn’t mere rudeness. Harris was less concerned with offending Grassley than in getting the jump on Booker.

Real Clear Politics "It was over so quickly that if you weren’t glued to C-SPAN you surely missed it, but a spontaneous moment of grace took place during the relentlessly partisan confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. It came when Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, asked Kavanaugh how he’d like to be remembered at the end of his life.

"The question seemed to take the nominee by surprise. “A good dad,” Kavanaugh replied haltingly, “a good judge.” As he hesitated, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, prompted the witness: “A good husband.”

"As laughter rippled through the room, Graham quipped, “Thanks, Dianne, you helped him a lot.” Temporarily reprieved, Kavanaugh smiled and told Feinstein, “I owe you.”

"This brief respite was a reminder that those at that hearing -- senators on both sides of the aisle, political advocates on opposite ends of this political fight, even the loudmouth protesters and Capitol Police officers who kept arresting them -- live in one common country. It also offered Americans a brief glimpse into how the Senate once operated, even while grappling with issues of great national import.

"No longer. The Democrats’ stalling tactics, rudeness, grandstanding, demagoguery, and organized disruptions -- aided by demonstrators who shrieked intermittently at the nominee -- reminded Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn of “mob rule.” That’s probably too strong a phrase, but the Democrats’ guerrilla tactics raised questions that go to the heart of self-governance: Is this the new norm on Capitol Hill, and in U.S. politics generally? If so, can the two-party system still function? And how did the confirmation process come to this?" . . .

God Bless Judge Kavanaugh; (Senators Harris and Booker need even more help.)

Ben Stein’s Diary

"So. The hearings of the Democrats versus Trump. Any trick. Any sneering innuendo. Any vile trick will do to try to upset Judge Kavanaugh. My favorites are the idiotic sniping by our California Senator “Kamala” Harris. She’s trying to “trap” Judge K. into saying he either met or did not meet with some unnamed person about the Mueller inquiry into Russian witch craft. There’s no point to the questions and no point is ever dragged forth, except that Kamala Harris is a fool. Then there’s New Jersey’s Cory Booker, who wants to show that he’s even more of a fool than our Senator Harris. He’s got some public papers which he’s trying to show are secret and he’s Martin Luther King, Jr. by revealing papers that are already public. How stupid can you get, Senator? There’s no “there” there and you’re just a big dope.
. . . 
"Well, Kamala Harris never really got to any kind of point. Cory Booker came across as a bully and a fool. But that’s their right as Senators. Still, it’s sad that we as a people aren’t prostrate with gratitude that we have a man as brilliant and learned and fine as Judge Kavanaugh who will take this kind of nonsense day after day for a basically minimum wage job. It’s an act of pure altruism and patriotism as far as I can tell.

"God bless you, Judge. And God bless Mr. Trump for naming such a fine man to the Supreme Court. As far the actors trying out for President in 2020, Senator Harris and Senator Booker… good luck. But I think Americans see right through you." . . .
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RCP: How the Senate Lost Its Decorum  . . . No longer. The Democrats’ stalling tactics, rudeness, grandstanding, demagoguery, and organized disruptions -- aided by demonstrators who shrieked intermittently at the nominee -- reminded Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn of “mob rule.” That’s probably too strong a phrase, but the Democrats’ guerrilla tactics raised questions that go to the heart of self-governance: Is this the new norm on Capitol Hill, and in U.S. politics generally? If so, can the two-party system still function? And how did the confirmation process come to this?

"The answers to those all questions are varied – and certainly not the fault of only one political party. Here are four factors that have helped create legislative chaos:" . . .

Obama Receives Ethics in Government Award

PJ Media Well then, there was the Nobel Peace Prize awarded him for, um......

"For years I’ve been warning about how the media, Hollywood, and academia have been aggressively trying to rewrite Obama’s abominable record in the White House. To hear them recall the Obama years, one can only conclude they believe Obama single-handedly saved this country from economic collapse, saved the planet from environmental calamity, and had a completely scandal-free administration. One might as well claim Obama cured cancer and saved us from an alien invasion—because they’re just as believable.

"Today, we saw just how far academia is going to perpetuate the myth of Obama’s “scandal-free” administration when he was awarded the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government by the University of Illinois. Not since the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize has Obama been so undeserving of an award. But, I submit that this award is even worse than the Nobel Peace Prize he didn’t deserve. In 2009, the Nobel committee was at least ignorant of what Obama’s record would turn out to be. There is simply no excuse in 2018 for Obama to be receiving an Ethics in Government award. The Nobel committee eventually realized their mistake. But, the Paul H. Douglas Award is now forever tainted.

"What, exactly, did the committee at the University of Illinois think Obama did to earn an Ethics in Government award? The Obama years were plagued by scandal and defined by a hyper-partisan government." . . .

Bring Back Shame

Eileen F. Toplansky After opening with the subject of the McCain funeral, Ms. Toplansky adds:

Consider how America has lost an awareness of the value of shame.  As defined, shame is a "painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior."

. . . "Consider the vicious attacks on people and property that are countenanced, certainly rarely stopped as Antifa, and Black Lives Matters and their ilk run roughshod in the country.  This is not an assertion of civil liberties.  It is pure violence, plain and simple.  College administrators watch while their universities are trampled upon. 

"This confirms another Hoffer assertion: "[t]he disconcerting thing is that loss of shame is not confined to juveniles."

"Shame properly used is "how a sense of decency is developed."  It protects the group from the dangers of individual excesses.  It is a balancing tool that keeps people accountable.

"In classical Greek mythology, Aidos was the "goddess of modesty, shame, reverence and respect.  She was a companion of the goddess Nemesis.  As a quality Aidos was the feeling of shame which restrains men from doing wrong, while Nemesis was righteous indignation aroused by the sight of wicked men receiving undeserved good fortune.' "

Do Democrats in Congress ever smile..or just have that permanent scowl?

Rough Beasts Slouching toward the White House  . . . "What has changed, I should think, is any serious notion that Cory Booker or Kamala Harris has a national political future after their outrageous performances this week.  Booker has exposed himself as an idiot, claiming he was like Spartacus in revealing classified information which had already been declassified, and which, in any event, showed that the judge had opposed "profiling." 

"Newt Gingrich said it best:

Cory Booker should study history before he tries to use it.  Calling a Senate publicity stunt his "Spartacus" moment was absurd.  Spartacus was a gladiator slave who rebelled, lost, was crucified.  Booker studied at Stanford, Oxford, Yale Law School.  His only risk is being ridiculed[.]

"Kamala Harris's unsubstantiated charge that the judge had discussed the Mueller investigation with an unnamed lawyer in a private firm at some unnamed date along with bullying the witness again demonstrates that she lacks the character and wit to hold even the senatorial seat, let alone higher office.

"Worse, for the Democrats, the often paid and completely outrageous effort to bully the Judiciary Committee has to drive any moderate even farther from its ranks.  Latest reports say 200 people were arrested for their disruptive tactics.  They include this person who bloodied his crotch for the display, which was supposed to mean what?  And outside the hearing room, nitwits wearing costumes from The Handmaid's Tale – again, for what end? " . . .
Cory Costanza Booker: Bad to the Bone  . . . "In addition, the email Booker released showed Kavanaugh opposed racial profiling. Nevertheless, Booker did his best George Costanza impression throughout the night of trying hard to seem like a "bad to the bone" rebel." . . .

Trump and His Enemies

. . . "With Speaker Paul Ryan and Senators Bob Corker and Jeff Flake departing, the only prominent Never Trumper in Congress who is visible to the public is Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who finesses it at times, indicating that even some of those Republican officeholders with a strong aversion to Trump will at least vote with the administration as long as the president is winning." . . .